Bill Knight

Coral corraller

Fish, Aquariums and Stuff may be the closest Boise has to an
aquarium. The store's display tanks hold hundreds of brightly colored
tropical fish, waving marine plants and oddly pockmarked rocks. It's no
wonder that Bill Knight, owner of the fish store that recently moved to
6112 Fairview Ave., is so relaxed--watching the fish is nearly
hypnotic.

Knight specializes in saltwater fish tanks, including growing live
corals and raising saltwater fish, which he says is an increasingly
environmentally sustainable hobby. We spoke with Knight recently about
corals, the industry and his coolest fish.

What's the "stuff" in your store's name?

Bill Knight: Just all the dry-good-type stuff like the food, all
the, you know, bulbs, all the other stuff that goes along with ... fish
tanks.

Do you specialize in saltwater fish, or do you have freshwater
fish, too?

No, we do both fresh and salt. But we do just fish. We don't do any
other pets like turtles and reptiles and that kinda stuff.

Why is that?

I tried turtles for a while--well, when I had the store in Mountain
Home, we did a lot of that other kinda stuff, and it was just more than
I really wanted to deal with.

What's the draw of fish?

Just the tranquility of dealing with a fish tank, I guess. Actually,
my wife had a small tank when I first met her. And, I mean ... I'd
messed with fish a little bit, but I hadn't dealt with 'em much until I
met her. And then, I don't know ... I just got really interested in
it.

What's the rarest fish you've ever had?

They're called the Crosshatch Trigger, they come out of Hawaii. The
other thing I got in that same shipment that time, they call them
Hawaiian Flame Wrasses. Both of those fish were quite rare as far as
the hobby is concerned.

Are they expensive then?

Yes. Flame Wrasses ... to do a pair, you're lookin' at about $450.
Some of those Crosshatch Triggers, you're probably lookin' at $800 or
$900 ... for a pair of those.

Do you guys have tanks at your home?

Just one. I used to have multiple tanks. The most I ever had, we had
five at one time. We had a 120 [gallon], a 125, a 29, a 30, and a
couple of 10s.

Tell me about some of your customers. Are there a lot of fish
enthusiasts in Boise?

Yeah, there is, quite a few. Saltwater side, maybe not as much as
there is on the freshwater side. Saltwater people are probably a little
more dedicated. We moved out here where we get a lot more drive-by
traffic, and I get a lot of freshwater people that have lived in Boise
and never knew I even existed. I mean, they know of the PetCos and the
PetSmarts and the places like that, so that's usually where they go ...
they don't seek a store like me out. Now ... saltwater people, PetCo
does a little bit of saltwater, and, uh, the one Zamzows out on
Overland does a little bit of saltwater, but, beyond that, there's not
really a whole lot. And so it's more of a specialty type of thing, and
saltwater customers typically will hunt out a store.

What do you need to know to keep a saltwater tank?

When you're dealin' with a saltwater fish tank, it's not all that
much different than dealin' with a freshwater tank. A little bit more
expensive to get it started but the basic principles aren't that much
different. When you start dealin' with the live coral and stuff, you
really gotta watch your water chemistry, your calcium, and your
alkaline a lot more closely because the corals depend on those a lot
more than the fish do.

So what are your suppliers like?

Especially on the saltwater side, most of 'em are large fish
suppliers. And ... most of them are in the L.A. area, not too far out
of LAX there. They're bringing fish and corals and stuff from all over
the world.

Can you show me your coolest fish?

Freshwater-wise, we've got a bunch of discus [fish]. They come out
of the Amazon region. They come in a wide variety of colors. They run
about 60 bucks apiece. They're a little more on the harder side to
keep.

What makes them hard to keep?

You gotta be a little more vigilant with your water chemistry, and
you really gotta control it. And they don't deal with letting the tank
get really dirty much and things like that. And they're a lot more
sensitive that way. We've got a lion fish, another pretty cool fish.
Their fins, well they call 'em poisonous. They're not really poisonous,
well, to a person. I been stung by 'em, and it was like a bad bee
sting.